Food

What to eat in Xalapa

The cool highland setting gives Xalapa its own food identity, separate from the seafood-heavy coast below. Here it is coffee, corn and comfort food.

The dishes worth planning around

• Coffee, first and always. Xalapa is coffee country, and a proper cup from a local roaster is the regional specialty as much as any dish. Cheap, and everywhere.
• Chilaquiles and picaditas for breakfast. Picaditas, small thick masa cakes topped with salsa, cheese and onion, are the classic Veracruz-style morning street food.
• Garnachas and antojitos. Masa-based snacks are the everyday eating here, sold at stalls and market comedores.
• Mole xiqueño. From nearby Xico, a sweet, dark, complex mole you will find on menus around Xalapa. Worth ordering if you see it.
• Chileatole and highland comfort food. Warm, corn-based dishes that suit the damp climate.

Where to eat

• Mercado Jáuregui and the market fondas for a cheap, honest comida corrida, roughly 80 to 140 pesos for a full set lunch (approximate).
• Café culture in the center for coffee and a pastry, a cup running roughly 30 to 60 pesos (approximate).
• Sit-down restaurants around the center for mole and regional plates, mains roughly 120 to 250 pesos (approximate).

Prices here are gentle. Eat where the students and office workers eat and you will do well for little.